“The Las Conchas fire, started on June 26 by a downed power line, has been near-apocalyptic in its dimensions and its danger. Firefighters said they’d never seen the likes of it. Within eight hours it whipped from 100 acres to 30,000, propelled by 35 mph winds. It burned from the forest floor to the tops of the trees, devouring everything in its wake, roaring through the canyons to the mesas, racing up and down the wooded hillsides of the beautiful Jemez Mountains and right up to the boundaries of the Los Alamos laboratories, where it threatened areas in the 40 square mile facility stocked with all manner of radioactive and toxic wastes, most notably barrels of transuranic wastes stored above ground in Area G, the most contaminated section of the entire property…” Read full essay on Stephanie’s site

“The Las Conchas fire, started on June 26 by a downed power line, has been near-apocalyptic in its dimensions and its danger."